Chapter 11-328: March Madness (1/2)
It had been a long month for me, and March wasn’t looking any shorter. We were up on the Tibetan Plateau now.
Well, it had been the Tibetan Plateau. What it was now was another one of those belly-groaner things.
The winds carrying distant whispers and screams, sibilant promises, and crazed laughter. The air saturated with psychic pain and fear. Mists gathering out of nowhere and dissipating. Even the Haze was thickening and thinning irregularly, as if subject to some outside force testing it, and my Detect Dimensions started getting very active when we arrived up here.
“Brother Shadowknife, Brother Firesword, you take me to the most interesting places,” I told them deadpan. The two Void Brothers didn’t even blink as they looked out over the misting landscape in front of me.
“Can you deal with it?” the Firesword asked, glancing at me, not knowing what to expect.
“The answer is yes, but.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Yes, but it would take me a very long time. This area is freaking immense. Setting up and sealing the spatial tremors going on here will not be a short thing. I’d have to make Obelisks ringing the thing, Interdict massive areas, lock them with more Obelisks in a great Formation...” Their eyes were on the Holo that was displaying my words, rings and rings and rings of it going on.
The two of them turned their eyes back to the ripples writhing through the Haze, while I studied it with Detect Magic and Detect Dimensions at VII. I probably wasn’t any more accurate than them at the task... except I was doing it over a massive area, and they were doing it over just their immediate area.
“This is a job for the Forsaken,” I nodded, crossing my arms. That seemed to startle them.
“What do you mean?” the diminutive Shadowknife asked. “This entire effect is far beyond what our Voids can deal with, let alone a Sun or Null.”
I shook my head. “I didn’t say Voids, I said Forsaken. Sources, Nulls, and Voids. You see those ripples in the Haze?” They both looked and nodded. “The Haze is actually not responding at all. That’s dimensional movement, writhing fluctuations in the Veil, and the Haze is just ignoring it.”
They both digested that. “Something very powerful, used to messing with dimensions, is trapped under the Haze,” the hyn said softly.
“Take it to the next step,” I agreed, forming a line in the Holo and moving to the next point on it.
“It can’t leave. Leave HERE,” the Firesword spoke up narrowly. “With this level of dimensional power, it could literally go anywhere on the planet, at any time. Instead, it’s just staying here.” He tapped his foot, frowning.
“Very good. For instance, either of the Poles, but especially the South Pole, would be much better places to pull this kind of shit off at, and they would have a much better chance of doing something, especially if it worked with the other Old Gods trapped in Hyperborea.”
“But it can’t get to them to do that. So, it is feeling out its prison, trying to get free of it... using the means and methods it knows. But the Shroud is... hampering it?” the Shadowknife asked, focused now, his small hands moving up and down as if feeling the Veil.
“The power here is on a Thirty to Thirty-Two. This is something very experienced at mass dimensional movement on a truly massive scale. Furthermore, if it is bound in place, it must mean there is a Shroudzone, and it is a master of undeath and/or negative energy. You don’t have the experience of Brothers in other worlds testing dimensions, or you would instantly identify the signature of the energy here.”
The Firesword grimaced fiercely. “Do we wish to hear this?” he had to ask.
“Probably not.” I pointed ahead. “At the center of this effect is an Avatar of the King in Yellow, perhaps Summoned in by some distraught monks. Fortunately, he is Bound to the Shroud, or he would have swallowed the entire world into his realm in Leng, and the entire planet would have become offerings to the Elder Gods.”
Both of them sucked in their breaths. Naturally they had perused all the resources The Jet and Silver could gather for levels of information, but putting the two together wasn’t the same as reading about the things.
“The Void guides the way, tearing apart this warping of the Veil and making a Path. The Null wedges it open, and the Source burns it into place. Assemble an army of the Forsaken, guide it to the heart of this place, and slay the Avatar of the King in Yellow!”
Both of them sucked in breaths. “Why not Powered?” Brother Firesword asked, just testing things out.
“The constant pressure will drive them mad before they get there. The King in Yellow is not a physical combatant; he assaults sanity and the dimensions. His Avatar is meant to open the way and eat a world, not exchange blows with those seeking to kill him. The constant pressure means that Powered will, eventually, break.
“But Forsaken,” I had to smile, “constant pressure just makes their anti-magical nature attune to it, get used to it, and ward it away. The longer they are in there, the less and less effect it will have on them, to the point where they’ll stop hearing all this psychic garbage entirely.” I glanced at the two of them. “Your Voids will just start automatically filtering it out. You’ll be aware of it, but unless you pay attention to it for some reason, it’ll be like ignoring a passing breeze.
“I suggest getting a bunch of Forsaken to Ten, camping here at the edge of the effect for at least ten days, and then guiding them in and taking the fight to the bastards.”
“Would a simple assassination work better?” the hyn asked quietly.
“Sure, but I don’t think you’re good enough yet,” I said directly. “He’s a Thirty with semi-Divine awareness. Your Void is good, but not that good. Do what you need to reinforce your Void, acclimate yourselves to the magic, punch a hole through the muck, and start butchering everything.
“The Avatar can likely draw stuff from Leng, and people did used to live here in Tibet, didn’t they?”
Their mouths opened, then closed at what I was intimating. “And many, many people were buried here...” the Firesword murmured.
“I would not be surprised if those who died were transformed into Leng Ghouls or Ghasts, and all those honored bones are now moving about. You will need an army, and one really good at fighting the undead... and possibly other denizens of Leng. The only other place you might be able to find this kind of experience is going down into the Felldeep.”